A 42-year-old drove a Ford pickup truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans, killing 14 and injuring 30 on Jan. 1. The New Year's Day attack is being investigated as an act of terror inspired by the Islamic State group, or ISIS.
Like many incidents, the attack fueled a surge of misinformation online. Notably, the misinformation that followed this particular attack was promoted by prominent U.S. figures.
The U.S. elected President Donald Trump and other prominent people blamed the attack on the current U.S. government, supposing that the attacker was an illegal migrant in the U.S., following a misleading initial report by the American conservative news outlet Fox News.
The U.S. Elected President and Other Prominent People Spread Misinformation
Seven hours after the attack, shortly after the police and media outlets began reporting on the incident, Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform a post claiming that the suspected attacker was a “criminal coming to the country.”
He said that his statement about the criminals coming to the U.S. being “far worse” than the criminals in the country was refuted by “Democrats and the Fake News Media,” but turned out to be true.
Donald Trump made his allegations shortly after Fox News reported that the suspect’s truck had crossed the border illegally into the United States two days prior to the attack in Eagle Pass, Texas—a town known for its large number of border crossings during the Biden administration.
However, on the same day, Fox News retracted its initial report saying that the truck crossed the border two months before the attack and that an investigation into the ID of the driver revealed that the driver was not the suspect.
The FBI also confirmed on the same day that the suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar was a “U.S. citizen from Texas.” He was born in the U.S. and was an Army veteran.
Texas government confirmed that Jabbar is from the Houston area. He rented the pickup truck he drove and had been driving it in Houston before heading to New Orleans.
Despite the FBI’s confirmation, Texas government statement, and Fox News’ correction, Trump doubled down on his claims, posting again and stressing his opposing stance against the migrants.
The day after the attack, Trump posted another post on the attack on Truth Social blaming the attack on Biden’s “Open Border Policy.”
He further described Biden as “the worst president in the history of America, a complete and total disaster.” He ended his post by saying “MAGA,” which stands for “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s slogan which is often associated with border policies that demand tighter border controls.
Many were misled by Trump’s post and Fox News’ initial report, including prominent lawmakers in the U.S.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia businesswoman and conservative activist, posted to her X account “Shut the border down!” promoting the false claim that the attacker was a migrant.
Trump’s son Donald John Trump Jr. also participated in the surge of misinformation. He posted on his X account: “Biden’s parting gift to America — migrant terrorists,” adopting the false narrative that the attacker was a migrant.
The issue of sharing such misleading news by some of the most prominent people is concerning as many people tend to take their news from them, considering that they would have information that they otherwise do not.
Trump’s Repeated Claims Against Migrants Are Proven to Be False
On Feb. 24, 2024, Donald Trump predicted that America will be dystopian under a second Biden term, suggesting the nation will be beset by spikes in illegal border crossings and foreign policy decisions that he said will lead to “World War III.”
He described the United Nations under Biden as awash in “bloodshed, chaos, and violent crime,” which is similar to his recent comment on the New Orleans attack and was like a cut-and-paste from his CPAC speech two years ago when he warned that the country was becoming a “lawless, open borders, crime-ridden, filthy, communist nightmare.”
However, data prove that the spike in violent crime in the U.S. happened on Trump’s watch, not Biden’s. In 2020, the final year of Trump's presidency, murder crimes rose by nearly 30 percent and assault by more than 10 percent. In comparison, since Biden took office, violent crime rates have fallen by 4 percent and murder rates by roughly 7 percent since 2020, according to the FBI.
Additionally, there is no evidence supporting Trump’s claims that the open borders will be “far more deadly than anyone thought.” New York City, for example, has had more than 150,000 migrants since the spring of 2022. Violent crime did not increase during that time.
Moreover, studies examining the crime rates among immigrants discredit Trump’s claims as well. A July 2023 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research looked at incarceration rates nationally of immigrants and U.S.-born citizens over a 150-year period (1870 to 2020) and found immigrants are 60 percent less likely to be incarcerated.
Another similar study from 2012 to 2018 showed that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes.
Misleading Claims Condemning New Orleans City
The attack also caused a surge of misleading news shared by people online. Some claims were directed at the government. An example of these claims is a narrative that circulated widely on social media platforms that claimed New Orleans chose not to raise the street barriers, or bollards, on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street. The claim was accompanied by a photo of a street barrier.
One of the people who shared this claim is Derrick Evans, the far-right American politician. He published the photo of the barrier, along with the caption: “These hydraulic steel barriers were installed on Bourbon Street in New Orleans after an attack in France where the t*rrorist used his car as a weapon, k*lling 86. They’re supposed to be raised between 5 p.m. - 5 a.m. The city chose not to raise them last night. Why?”
A reverse image search on the photo revealed that the viral image dates back to Feb. 2017. Nola, an online news outlet based in New Orleans, included the photo in a report titled: “Bourbon Street safety barrier: Have you seen them? Here’s how they work.”
The report featured a YouTube video reporting on the barriers, and under it, the viral photo captioned, “Bourbon Street safety barrier, located on St. Peter Street near Pat O'Brien's.”
Contrary to the claim, the city did not “choose not to raise” the barriers, but they were removed from Bourbon Street before the attack.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference after the attack that the city was replacing the older barriers, known as bollards, ahead of the city’s hosting the Super Bowl in February. “Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed before the Super Bowl,” she said.
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